Uncertainty in the Patent System: Quantitative Analysis of EPO data

The goal of this proposal is to suggest some possibilities for the
quantitative analysis of EPO's applicant behaviour and the
uncertainty in the patent system this behaviour induces. Overly long
pendency times are a cost to both EPO (due to the increased pendency
time induced by the additional workload that behaviours creating
uncertainty imply) and to society (due to the problem that the final
scope of the claims of the granted patent is unknown), so that there
is a joint interest for an analysis of how and why patent
applications differ, and whether or not this difference may be
traced back to applicants willingly creating uncertainty.